![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The next day, I was up early to visit the D-day museum which was close to where I was staying. I stared at the Overlord Tapestry (a tapestry of the events of D-day... a modern day Bayeaux tapestry basically) though I was rather weired out by the old ladies wandering about talking about it with more knowledge than many experts I've heard. The rest of the museum was ridiculously detailed and taxed the two hours of time I had alloted to see the place. I made it with just enough time to buy some presents for my dad, then catch the bus back to the historic dockyards to finish up my ticket.
I remembered to stop for lunch (fish and chips), then went on the harbour tour which was rather dismal since the weather was lousy (rain and wind) but it was cool to see modern frigates and aircraft carriers and such relatively close up. Second stop was the Mary Rose museum, which took a long time due to all the artefacts and information. My underwater arch. professor was right though, it was quite detailed and accurate with some really interesting stuff. The book I wanted to check out which examines the skeletal remains from the ship is out of print apparently. Bah...
Next, I wandered over to the a well-constructed bit of propaganda of the recruiting kind called Action Stations, where we were first shown an utterly laughable film about the modern navy (though who the hell the first lieutenant was has been bothering me since, since I know I've seen the red headed, British actor before.). It had many explosions in it and an incoherent plot, but they had at least appealed to both sexes by having a cool female helicopter pilot... and the captain couldn't act... did I mention they blew up things? Afterwards, I played with all the various simulations, during which I discovered I can't steer a ship for the life of me or shoot at hostiles using a radar screen. But, I can fly a helicopter, and I'm a damn good shot with a semi-machine gun and an automatic rifle (we'll assume the lack of recoil compensates the fact that they were set up for someone taller and with longer arms than me...). I also got my own personal ride in a Harrier jet simulator. Hurrah for there being no other tourists about!
Dinner was at Pizza Express cause I wanted artichokes. To all waiters trying to be friendly/flirt with the lone person eating and reading - talking about my book is not being friendly. It's being annoying. Unless you'd like to take a half hour break and discuss the book with me in detail, bugger off. New book was The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis and I can't decide if I liked it or not. I loved all the historical details (the first thing I always think of when I consider ancient Rome is their quaint habit of having passerbys piss in the laundry for its acidity and lo and behold that was one of the first things brought up in the book), but I'm not sure if I liked Falco himself and I think he could have been characterized better. He came off as a Gary Stu and I've been reading too many of those lately (sometimes they're bearable, but if you're not expecting one, they get annoying). I'm wondering now if her writing improves (it's the first book after all, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt) which will be the deciding factor on if I buy the next book.
With the historic dockyards finished, I had a free day on Sunday, and chose to go to the Submarine museum at Gosport. I made my way leisurely there using a combination of wandering about aimlessly looking for a bus stop, visiting the sunday market, taking the ferry, and dallying in a pub over lasagna for lunch. I did eventually get there and was thrilled to get a tour of the diesel submarine they have there given by an old submariner who had lots of interesting stories to tell if you teased them out of him, like how they used to store beer in the torpedo tubes... I got to look through the periscope too, which pleased me to no end. Then I went to look at the historical part of the museum which was fascinating (I love how the submarines all flew pirate flags.) but somewhat depressing since the death and sinking rate in them during the world wars was appalling. The stuff on modern nuclear submarines wasn't as interesting, but they had another periscope for me to play with so that was all right, and they had the first british submarine which was interesting. Then went to look at the various weapons, and caught the ferry back to Portsmouth where I had an excellent dinner of Thai lemon chicken and noodles before spending the night in my room, finishing off the final book I brought with me for entertainment, Sharpe's Devil. See me blink at finding actual buggery in a Sharpe novel...
I should also mention that a lady in Portsmouth broke my record of never being mistaken for younger than my age here in Britain. I got carded in a pub by a lady who thought I was 16!
Woke up at another ungodly hour this morning to be fed by the lovely B&B lady, before heading to the train station where I endured a very long train ride, staring out the window, doing hiragana exercises (I'm slowly getting better...) and reading Archaeology and the Social History of Ships which was one of the academic books I brought with me to read. Am tired, but happy now. First holiday I've been on in a long time where everything went okay.
I remembered to stop for lunch (fish and chips), then went on the harbour tour which was rather dismal since the weather was lousy (rain and wind) but it was cool to see modern frigates and aircraft carriers and such relatively close up. Second stop was the Mary Rose museum, which took a long time due to all the artefacts and information. My underwater arch. professor was right though, it was quite detailed and accurate with some really interesting stuff. The book I wanted to check out which examines the skeletal remains from the ship is out of print apparently. Bah...
Next, I wandered over to the a well-constructed bit of propaganda of the recruiting kind called Action Stations, where we were first shown an utterly laughable film about the modern navy (though who the hell the first lieutenant was has been bothering me since, since I know I've seen the red headed, British actor before.). It had many explosions in it and an incoherent plot, but they had at least appealed to both sexes by having a cool female helicopter pilot... and the captain couldn't act... did I mention they blew up things? Afterwards, I played with all the various simulations, during which I discovered I can't steer a ship for the life of me or shoot at hostiles using a radar screen. But, I can fly a helicopter, and I'm a damn good shot with a semi-machine gun and an automatic rifle (we'll assume the lack of recoil compensates the fact that they were set up for someone taller and with longer arms than me...). I also got my own personal ride in a Harrier jet simulator. Hurrah for there being no other tourists about!
Dinner was at Pizza Express cause I wanted artichokes. To all waiters trying to be friendly/flirt with the lone person eating and reading - talking about my book is not being friendly. It's being annoying. Unless you'd like to take a half hour break and discuss the book with me in detail, bugger off. New book was The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis and I can't decide if I liked it or not. I loved all the historical details (the first thing I always think of when I consider ancient Rome is their quaint habit of having passerbys piss in the laundry for its acidity and lo and behold that was one of the first things brought up in the book), but I'm not sure if I liked Falco himself and I think he could have been characterized better. He came off as a Gary Stu and I've been reading too many of those lately (sometimes they're bearable, but if you're not expecting one, they get annoying). I'm wondering now if her writing improves (it's the first book after all, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt) which will be the deciding factor on if I buy the next book.
With the historic dockyards finished, I had a free day on Sunday, and chose to go to the Submarine museum at Gosport. I made my way leisurely there using a combination of wandering about aimlessly looking for a bus stop, visiting the sunday market, taking the ferry, and dallying in a pub over lasagna for lunch. I did eventually get there and was thrilled to get a tour of the diesel submarine they have there given by an old submariner who had lots of interesting stories to tell if you teased them out of him, like how they used to store beer in the torpedo tubes... I got to look through the periscope too, which pleased me to no end. Then I went to look at the historical part of the museum which was fascinating (I love how the submarines all flew pirate flags.) but somewhat depressing since the death and sinking rate in them during the world wars was appalling. The stuff on modern nuclear submarines wasn't as interesting, but they had another periscope for me to play with so that was all right, and they had the first british submarine which was interesting. Then went to look at the various weapons, and caught the ferry back to Portsmouth where I had an excellent dinner of Thai lemon chicken and noodles before spending the night in my room, finishing off the final book I brought with me for entertainment, Sharpe's Devil. See me blink at finding actual buggery in a Sharpe novel...
I should also mention that a lady in Portsmouth broke my record of never being mistaken for younger than my age here in Britain. I got carded in a pub by a lady who thought I was 16!
Woke up at another ungodly hour this morning to be fed by the lovely B&B lady, before heading to the train station where I endured a very long train ride, staring out the window, doing hiragana exercises (I'm slowly getting better...) and reading Archaeology and the Social History of Ships which was one of the academic books I brought with me to read. Am tired, but happy now. First holiday I've been on in a long time where everything went okay.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
And now we must plot to go to London, for I finally know my schedule. *gryn*
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
How many days do we want to be there, and what should we do besides Les Mis if anything? And erk, yes, where to stay...I have no idea! The two times I went to London with my parents we stayed at a university, you can rent currently unused rooms pretty cheap, it seems...perhaps we could look into that. Or a hostel. A B&B would rock but I suspect inexpensive B&Bs are nonexistant in London!